Integrative and Functional Medicine

​What is integrative and functional medicine?

 

Integrative medicine and functional medicine (colloquially referred to as "holistic medicine") share the same roots of focusing on whole-person healing, in body, mind, and spirit. This is done through using the best of scientific evidence, lifestyle interventions, as well as therapeutic modalities that have withstood the test of time, to achieve healing at a fundamental level. 

 

Integrative medicine is the current term used to refer to the field of medicine that applies the above principles systematically and rigorously. Older terms, such as alternative medicine (which refers to the use of non-conventional therapeutics instead of conventional Western medicine) or complementary medicine (which refers to the use of non-conventional therapeutic strategies along with concurrent conventional treatments, albeit not in an integrated manner), are now less frequently used.

 

Integrative medicine does not exclude conventional treatments or medications. Rather, it integrates them with complementary therapeutic modalities and lifestyle interventions in a way that allows the patient to maximize the body's ability to heal itself. Often, a well-designed and executed integrative medicine treatment program will eventually eliminate the use of pharmaceutical agents that are costly and side-effects laden, though there can be situations where the continued use of certain medications may be in the best interest of the patient.

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Prominent national organizations in the U.S. that advance the field of integrative medicine include the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (ACIMH), an organization made up of over 70 academic Institutions and health systems, and the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM), an inter-professional membership association of health care practitioners. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a U.S. government agency (one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health) that funds research related to integrative medicine.

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Functional medicine can be considered a subspecialty of integrative medicine. What distinguishes functional medicine from the more general integrative medicine is the use of a systems approach to understanding the patient's biochemical individuality and health life history (antecedents, triggers, and mediators), and the application of this understanding to personalized treatment plans that address health and disease at a fundamental level. This systems approach has been refined over time by leaders in functional medicine. A standardized, replicable methodology of delivering this type of clinical care is now promulgated by the Institute for Functional Medicine, a national organization that provides training and certification for licensed health care practitioners in functional medicine.

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In practicing integrative and functional medicine, Dr. Wang has witnessed countless numbers of patients who previously suffered from chronic symptoms successfully regain their quality of life after the resolution of their symptoms. While many medications are important and necessary for the treatment of chronic diseases, a holistic medicine approach rooted in integrative medicine and functional medicine prevents a worsening spiral of what we call the “prescribing cascade,” whereby the side effects from one medication leads to the prescribing of another medication to treat the side effects from the first medication, and so forth, eventually resulting in polypharmacy, the chronic use of multiple medications. Instead of putting on temporary band-aids, Dr. Wang enjoys helping patients recover their health at a fundamental level and, when possible, reverse or prevent the development of disease in the first place. When this is achieved, patients marvel at how their lives are forever changed, in ways that would not have been possible without having taken the path to health and healing through Dr. Wang’s mindful practice of integrative medicine and functional medicine.

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Conditions we treat through the integrative and functional medicine approach include (not an exhaustive list):